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More on Demographics: Under-Reporting of Alzheimer's Deaths?

By Hull Hull LLP

pThe words quot;aging populationquot; have graduated from being an overworked cliche to a trite observation.nbsp; The implications are intuitively obvious in many contexts.nbsp; We've blogged here on this topic before and what it means for lawyers.nbsp; Our understanding of the implications continues to evolve, and it helps to keep an eye on other countries with similar levels of economic development, social services and legal cultures (and bigger populations hence more money to study the issue).nbsp;/p pOne thing is becoming increasingly clear, and a quick tour over the ocean makes this crystal clear: our bodies seem to be outlasting our minds./p pWe all know the implications for increased demand for legal guardianship expertise, especially for a href="http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article5315569.ece"The Sandwich Generation/a, and potential litigation later (which is enhanced by our general lack of knowledge of the depth of dementia across the population).nbsp; The a href="http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?categoryID=200167amp;documentID=412"Alzheimer's Society/a (see the a href="http://www.lvrj.com/news/36126914.html"Canadian website/a for a local view) states that a href="http://www.barchester.com/Healthcare-News/Dementia-'must-be-addressed'/376/2518"1 in 3/a British over 65 years of age die from the disease.nbsp; The over-65s will constitute 25% of the a href="http://www.craegmoor.co.uk/news/industry/18926985/dementia_must_be_tackled_now.aspx"UK's population by 2032/a, which means that 8% of all deaths (at least) in the UK will be caused by Alzheimers.nbsp; In other patients, the disease may still be present but not the cause of death./p pInterestingly, Alzheimers was only the No. 5 cause of death among Americans over 65 years of age in 2004.nbsp; However, it turns out that Alzheimers and other forms of dementia often a href="http://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/news/20081209/dementia-death-statistics-underestimated"do not get noted/a on death certificates, at least in Boston.nbsp; If a similar trend exists elsewhere in the U.S., that might alter U.S. death statistics by raising the profile of Alzheimer's and dementia generally. nbsp; nbsp;/p pFire and brimstone, all is lost?nbsp; Not entirely.nbsp;a href="http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/458958" Medical research/a can always help.nbsp; Also, see a href="http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/why-does-us-health-care-cost-so-much-part-iii-an-aging-population-isnt-the-reason/?hp"this article/a which offers a detailed applied statistical analysis on the U.S. demographic bubble (or lack thereof perhaps) in a non-estates context, yet still relevant to any lawyer to whom demographics is relevant./p pTwo more days,/p pChris Graham/p pnbsp;/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TorontoEstateLawBlog/~4/492814308" height="1" width="1"/

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on December 23, 2008 (boomark / email).